Islam And Modernity: Muslims Need To Understand Differences Between Islam's Divine Orders And Prevalent Social And Political Norms That Evolved Over Centuries
By
Mohammad Ali, New Age Islam
April 12,
2022
Main
Points:
1. This article
argues that in the modern period Muslim scholars mixed the social and political
norms with the divine orders, that is, Islam.
2. It
illustrates the situation by offering different examples.
3. It suggests
that Muslim scholars should try to understand the difference between religion
and social and political practices, which will help them to resolve the
conflict between modernity and Islam
----
As the
world entered the modern age, religion started losing its grip on societies.
People had something new to believe in: science and technology. With their
proliferation over time, science and technology transformed our understanding
of the world we live in. Our beliefs, values, and norms, all were affected by
it. The impact was so huge that in our idiomatic expression the ‘modern’ or
‘new’ as a product of the modern age was only regarded to be worthy of
imitation and believing in. Whereas the ‘old’ was considered as the
reminiscence of the past, thus, discarded. This dichotomy of ‘modern’ and ‘old’
represents a hostile view when it is deemed as a fence that is erected between
our past and present, allowing nothing to enter from the other side. I think it
should rather be viewed as flowing, like a river, from one side to another, an
analogy that helps us imagine that our past is informing our present.
The
transformation that occurred due to science and technology affected religion
gravely since it was religion that was entwined with every shred in the fabric
of society. As a result, great social scientists, like Weber, Durkheim, and
Marx, started believing that as modernity in societies advances, the role of
religion will decline. But some argued that it was not completely true, for
there was one major exception, Islam. In the last century, the hold of Islam
over Muslims has not diminished but rather increased. This news can be
satisfying for Muslims. But it is also true, and unfortunate, indeed, that
Muslims find it difficult to follow Islam in the modern world. There are some
reasons behind it—one of them is that we retain, at least conceptually, the old
worldview that clashes with the modern one—that we, Muslims, need to understand
in order to accommodate comfortably in this world.
There are
two Islams that we practice today: the one that was revealed to our Prophet
Muhammad and the other that we have evolved out of our norms and customs over
centuries, that also vary from place to place. Casteism in Islam is, for
instance, an entirely Indian phenomenon that clearly violates Islam's divine
exhortations.
Here, I
would like to refer to Dr. Ali al-Omari, a professor of Ilm-e-Kalam at Fatih
Sultan Mehmet University in Istanbul, Turkey, to illustrate this point. In one
of his lectures, Dr. al-Omari poses a hypothetical question: what is meant by
religious beliefs that are ascribed to the religion our Prophet Muhammad was
sent with? He answers the question by saying that they are divine orders. And
the meaning of divine orders, he further explains, is that they are established
or created solely by God. No human efforts can possibly create them. Human
intellect might discover them, but it cannot create them. If there is any
interference of human intellect in creating such orders, they cannot be called
divine.
It is an
excellent distinction. For a Muslim, abiding by divine orders or Islam is an
obligation, and a violation of any of its injunctions may lead to divine
punishment in the Hereafter. And if something is not a religious obligation,
i.e., not commanded by Islam, then Muslims are not obligated to do it,
therefore, its violation cannot be termed as haram, prohibited. But, as
al-Omari pointed out, we confuse divine orders, i.e., Islam, with non-divine
orders.
Let me
explain it a little more. Islam is very specific in explaining its fundamental
articles that provide the foundations for the Muslim faith. For instance, the
doctrines of tawhid, risalat, and akhirah. Then there are some practices that
are related to social and political norms, but they are not specified in the
Quran or in the sound traditions ascribed to the Prophet Muhammad. Rather, they
are deduced by scholars of Islam under certain circumstances which are defined
by their social and political environment. But due to practicing them for
centuries, Muslims came to believe them as part of their religion, as if God
commanded them to do so. Since these practices originated in the past and were
in sync with the society of that time, Muslims had no problems practicing them.
But when the world changed, Muslims, instead of reorganizing their social and
political norms, insisted on clinging to those practices of the past.
Discarding our past completely or insisting on bringing it into the present,
both are misguided notions. Neither should our past be discarded completely nor
should it be insisted upon in the present. As I said earlier, our past should
be seen as a flowing river, a tradition, which we need to reorganize as time
passes.
For
example, for many Muslims, child marriage is allowed in Islam. In 1929, when
the British government in India passed an act, Child Marriage Restraint Act,
also known as Sharda Act, fixing a certain age for marriage for boys and girls.
Muslim organizations of that time, such as Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, viewed this act
as anti-Islamic and an assault on Shariah. They argued that in Islam marriage
is a religious issue, therefore, an interference in it would be regarded as
interference in Islam itself. In protest of the act, these ulama organized
child marriages across the subcontinent and appealed to their followers to do
so. They reacted this way because they were confused between divine orders and
social norms. In order to establish a healthy society, Islam does direct its
followers to seek union through marriage. But other things related to marriage,
such as rituals as well as the suitable age for the bride or groom are
established by social norms. In the past, norms were different. And the
suitable age of the groom and bride in Muslim societies was established by the
norm of the time which came to be believed as something which is established by
divine order. But this was not true. Today, such confusion is causing serious
problems for Muslim societies across the world.
While
reading modern Muslim history, it becomes clear how this confusion caused
intellectual chaos in the Muslim world. Early in the British Raj, there were
fatwas against wearing paints, ties, using cutlery, and so on. This cultural
and social change was deemed as a threat to Islamic values. However, this
change was inevitable and made a forced entry into Muslim societies. We do not
have any problem observing them anymore. Similarly, there are examples of
clashes that occurred due to the change in political norms. The call for jihad
or the establishment of an Islamic government by using violence is caused by
the same confusion between divine orders and political norms. The real task for
scholars today is to identify this difference and when they feel or are asked
for their opinion about such matters it is important for them that they do not
mix the two things together: Islam and social norms. They should not get
provoked if some practices are subjected to change. Rather they should guide
the masses towards a proper reorganization.
----
Mohammad Ali has been a madrasa student.
He has also participated in a three years program of the "Madrasa
Discourses,” a program for madrasa graduates initiated by the University of
Notre Dame, USA. Currently, he is a PhD Scholar at the Department of Islamic
Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. His areas of interest include Muslim
intellectual history, Muslim philosophy, Ilm-al-Kalam, Muslim sectarian
conflicts, madrasa discourses.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-society/modernity-muslims-divine-social-political-/d/126786